The U.S. military they are joining needs to mount a “modern defense” against the security threats of pandemics, climate change, and hackers, Vice President Kamala Harris told graduates of the United States Naval Academy.
“We are at a significant turning point. Just look at the last several months,” Harris told the graduating class in Annapolis, Maryland, on Friday, becoming the first woman to give a commencement speech at the Academy as 786 new Navy officers and 274 Marine Corps officers will be commissioned.
COVID-19 “has accelerated our world into a new era. … Just think, a deadly pandemic can spread throughout the globe in just a matter of months. A gang of hackers can disrupt the fuel supply of a whole seaboard. One country’s carbon emissions can threaten the sustainability of the whole Earth,” Harris said in an apparent jab at China. “We are now entering the next era. A new age. A new epoch, with its own tests, with its own challenges, and with its own opportunities.”
She added: “Our world is interconnected. Our world is interdependent. And our world is fragile.”
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The vice president’s remarks come amid foreign policy challenges for the Biden administration as it looks to contain China and complete its withdrawal from Afghanistan after a near 20-year deployment. President Joe Biden has argued that domestic policy and foreign policy are directly linked, stating economic security at home as a priority in warding off threats from abroad.
Harris pointed to the need to secure U.S. technology by investing in research and protecting it from foreign actors.
“On the issue of cybersecurity, foreign adversaries have their sights set on our military technology, our intellectual property, our elections, our critical infrastructure,” Harris said, a veiled swipe at countries that have pursued U.S. technologies, sought to capitalize on political discord by sowing disinformation, and who have hacked government and private-sector systems.
Harris also pointed to a recent attack on the Colonial Pipeline, which supplies nearly half of the fuel to the Eastern Seaboard. The 5,500-mile system was shuttered by a ransomware attack from suspected Russian hackers earlier this month.
“We must defend our nation against these threats, and at the same time, we must make advancements in … quantum computing and artificial intelligence and robotics and things that will put our nation at a strategic advantage,” Harris said.
She, at one point, offered a bit of humor that initially fell flat.
“And then of course there’s climate change, which is a very real threat to our national security,” Harris said, adding that the graduates would be on the forefront of this, converting “solar and wind energy into combat power.”
“Just ask any Marine today: Would she rather carry 20 pounds of batteries or a rolled-up solar panel, and I am positive, she will tell you a solar panel. And so would he,” the vice president quipped to mild applause.
For years, the military has worked to lighten battery packs to reduce the weight troops have to carry — in their packs, as well as in vehicles and aircraft.
The Biden administration is urging new investment in critical infrastructure, such as semiconductors, as it moves to confront China, considered by most experts to be Washington’s top economic and military rival. The Communist government in Beijing also has stepped up its diplomatic efforts around the globe, eager to curry favor and gain an edge against the U.S. and Europe.
Meanwhile, U.S. forces are accelerating their withdrawal from Afghanistan after spending two decades there, as the White House seeks to reorient its foreign policy toward security challenges in Pacific Asia.
Harris confirmed during an interview with CNN last month that she was the last person in the room as Biden made the decision to pull troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11.
Since taking office, the vice president has sought to deepen her foreign policy experience, meeting with visiting foreign leaders, and engaging diplomatically with the heads of Guatemala and Mexico as the administration works to stem the flow of Central American migrants to the southern U.S. border.
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Harris’s keynote address at the Naval Academy graduation and commissioning ceremony was the vice president’s first military speech. Presidents and vice presidents deliver commencement speeches to the service academies on a rotating basis.
Before arriving at the stadium, Harris paid her respects and laid flowers at the grave of former Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a war hero, decorated Naval officer, and graduate of the Academy. The late senator was detained from October 1967 until March 1973 after his A-4E Skyhawk was shot down over Hanoi during the Vietnam War. He was tortured by enemy forces, suffering injuries from which he never recovered, and declined early release unless his fellow-U.S. detainees also were freed.
